News

Robinsons and Iron Maiden launch Trooper Pale Ale

10 May 2024 By James Evison

A brand-new lighter ABV Trooper beer has been launched by Robinsons and Iron Maiden on the collaboration’s 11th birthday, called Trooper Pale Ale.

The 3.4% ABV session beer is a lighter and sessionable pale ale flavoured with citra hops. According to Robinsons, it has introduced Trooper Pale as the lowest strength ABV in the range, contrasting with the highest 10% ABV limited edition beer released last year, and the 4.7% flagship Trooper ale which was launched in 2013.

The bottle includes a newly designed label of the Iron Maiden icon Trooper Eddie, which nods to the band’s current The Future Past world tour imagery. The bottle tops continue the singles collection date stamped artwork that forms a historic timeline and display.

Trooper Pale Ale has launched across 321 ASDA stores in England, including the brewer’s home-town store of Stockport. The new beer will also be available from Robinsons Brewery’s online store and its visitor centre.

It will also be available in export markets via Sovereign Beverage Co. later this month, the brewery said.

Trooper has been a success story for Robinsons and the rock band with more than 30 million pints sold globally since launch, and the product exported to 60 countries across the world.

No headache

Iron Maiden lead singer Bruce Dickinson said: “I set Director of Brewing and Operations, Martyn Weeks, his hardest challenge yet.

“Brew a proper sessionable beer for us without compromising on taste – and do you know what? He’s only gone and done it – as we all knew he would! It’s Trooper…but without the headache!”

Oliver Robinson, managing director of Beer Division at Robinsons said the brewery was “delighted” to be continuing its collaboration with Iron Maiden after “after 11 years of success together.”

He said: “Trooper Pale is an exciting new launch as we take inspiration from the beer industry’s market trends and introduce a lower ABV beer as the category of ‘low and no’ continues to grow”.

Wine

The news comes as Iron Maiden teamed up with importer and distributor Ehrmanns Wine to create a wine inspired by one of the heavy metal band’s most recent songs.

Taking inspiration from the band’s 2021 song Darkest Hour, Iron Maiden Darkest Red is a Douro DOC still red (also from the 2021 vintage) sourced from historic producer Van Zeller Wine Collection.

Launching the product at ProWein, Ehrmanns Wine head of sales Paul Daniell told the drinks business that the band expressed interest in the company’s other Portugese wines and also that it was a happy coincidence that frontman Bruce Dickinson spoke at the Wine Future conference in Coimbra, Portugal last year as this Portuguese table wine was in development.

“This has been in the works for a year,” he said. “We chose Douro DOC because it’s in growth. There’s a buzz about Portuguese wines. If we did another Malbec, it would just be another Malbec – this is something different. It’s a disruptive wine in a disruptive category.”